2012 British Grand Prix
|poletime = 1:51.746 |fastestlap = 1:34.661 |fastestlapdriver = Kimi Räikkönen |fastestlapnation = FIN |fastestlapteam = |fastestlapnumber = 50 |winner = Mark Webber |winnernation = AUS |winnerteam = |second = Fernando Alonso |secondnation = ESP |secondteam = |third = Sebastian Vettel |thirdnation = GER |thirdteam = }} The 2012 British Grand Prix was the ninth race of the 2012 Formula One Season, which took place on the weekend of 6–8 July 2012 on the 2011 Arena layout of the Silverstone Circuit, the second running on this layout and 46th at Silverstone. It was the 63rd consecutive running of the British Grand Prix as a round of the Formula One World Championship, the longest such run of any event on the Formula One calendar. Fernando Alonso of set pole position, ahead of 's Mark Webber, in a very wet qualifying session, with an extremely long red flag stoppage in Q2. Mark Webber won the race, overtaking runner-up Fernando Alonso in the final stint, less than five laps from the end of the race. Webber's teammate, Sebastian Vettel, came third. As for the British drivers, Lewis Hamilton came eighth and Jenson Button scored a single point. Paul di Resta suffered an early puncture and was forced to retire. Background The meant that Fernando Alonso had taken a commanding lead in the championship, 20 points ahead of his nearest rival, Mark Webber. The title chase would, though, had a different look to it were it not for Sebastian Vettel's alternator failure, and Pastor Maldonado crashing into Lewis Hamilton. lead the constructors' championship by 39 points, ahead of . The aftermath of the European Grand Prix continued onto the grid of the British Grand Prix. Jean-Éric Vergne would take a ten-place grid penalty, while Kamui Kobayashi has a five-place grid penalty. Vergne caused an avoidable collision with Heikki Kovalainen, while Kobayashi did the same to Felipe Massa. On the Wednesday before the race, test driver María de Villota crashed into a support truck at Duxford Airfield during a straightline test. She was left with life-threatening injuries, but made a strong recovery, and only lost her right eye. brought several updates to the race. They were not the only ones to bring a major update, Marussia and McLaren did likewise. Practice Overview FP1 Three third drivers drove in Free Practice 1. Jules Bianchi replaced Nico Hülkenberg at , Valtteri Bottas replaced Bruno Senna at , and Dani Clos replaced Narain Karthikeyan at . 's Romain Grosjean set the fastest time in a very wet session, ahead of Daniel Ricciardo of . Third was the of Lewis Hamilton Fernando Alonso and the two Force Indias did not set times, and Charles Pic set a time fifteen seconds down on Grosjean. Grosjean's time was 26 seconds down on Mark Webber's pole time at the previous British GP. Many drivers spun, including Clos (twice), Kamui Kobayashi, Timo Glock and Pedro de la Rosa; while Grosjean and Heikki Kovalainen ran off-circuit. FP2 The second practice was extremely wet. So wet, that 45 minutes into the 90 minute session, only two cars had gone out and set a time, first Timo Glock, with a time of 2:11.964. Bruno Senna then set a time of 2:10.215, before telling his team that doing laps in the conditions was pointless. Once the rain stopped, though, things started to happen out on track, with Kamui Kobayashi one of the first out. He quickly set a time over six seconds quicker than Senna's time. Within fifteen minutes, the time had fallen to 1:58.894, set by Kobayashi. Just after that, though, Senna had a crash, the car slipping away from him as he powered away down the Hangar Straight. The session was red flagged for a good few minutes. By the end of the session, drivers were trying out the intermediate tyre. This was not quicker, as Fernando Alonso went 13th on his first run on the tyre. Sebastian Vettel set a personal best first sector, but made a mistake. Vettel soon cut across Glock, but the driver, on the wet tyre, managed to pass him. Alonso finished the session with an off-track excursion, clipping the barriers in the process. The fastest time was set by Lewis Hamilton, the driver setting a time of 1:56.345. Hamilton was using the wet tyre. Second was Kobayashi. Romain Grosjean, Daniel Ricciardo, Mark Webber and Pedro de la Rosa did not set times. FP3 The fastest time in a dry third practice was 's Fernando Alonso, who set a time of 1:32.167. This lap turned out to be the fastest lap on any of the three days. The track was not completely dry at first, but dryed out as the session went on. Charles Pic had issues in his twice. The first, just after 20 minutes into the hour session, meant he stopped his car on track at Becketts, and brought out a temporary red flag. The second, at Stowe, with five minutes left, only brought out yellow flags. The other main bits of action involved Alonso and the drivers. Alonso spun at the final corner, Club, with about fifteen minutes left in the session. With ten minutes to go, Kamui Kobayashi, who was on for a very quick lap, went off at the final corner (like Alonso). Two minutes later, team mate Sergio Pérez went off-track and damaged his front wing. Practice Results Qualifying Q1 The session was a wet one, but only wet enough for intermediates. The rain had only started falling five minutes or so after FP3 finished, but then stopped, before beginning again five minutes before Q1 started. The twenty-minute session began with all 24 drivers out on almost immediately. The Q1 order was constantly changes, since the intermediate tyres were durable enough. Quite surprising, the first major incident happened in the last minute. Timo Glock spun on the start-finish straight and brought out yellow flags. This meant that drivers could not set a fastest sector time, difficult to do in the improving conditions on track. The yellow flags affected Jenson Button, who was on for good lap that would take him through to Q2, but he slowed down, and did not manage to beat Nico Rosberg's time. Also out were the two s, Vitaly Petrov ahead of Heikki Kovalainen, then Glock, Pedro de la Rosa, Narain Karthikeyan and Charles Pic was last, outside of the 107% time. Q2 The weather, already not good, took a turn for the worst for Q2. The wet tyre, apparently, was not sufficient. Michael Schumacher goes off at Becketts, in the horrendous conditions. Eventually, after Fernando Alonso went off, and Lewis Hamilton nearly hit , the session was red flagged, with just six minutes and seventeen seconds left. Sergio Pérez was the fastest at the time, with a time of 1:59.092, ahead of Hamilton and Nico Rosberg and Jean-Éric Vergne. During the break, everyone was bored, to the point that a Mexican Wave was started in the pit lane. After 90 minutes, the session started up again. With dryer conditions, the times started to tumble downwards. As the chequered flag was waved, the most notable driver in the dropout zone was Alonso, but like most of the field, he was on a quick lap. Romain Grosjean managed to spin, bringing out yellow flags for the final sector. Grosjean was safely through to Q1, but he would be unable to take part in it. Despite the yellow flags, Alonso managed to set the ninth quickest time of the session. Hamilton set the fastest time, at 1:54.897. Unluckiest was Paul di Resta, who came in eleventh, his place in Q1 removed during the yellow flags. Also out was Kamui Kobayashi, Rosberg, Daniel Ricciardo, Bruno Senna, Vergne and Pérez, who was first during the red flag period, but last after it. Q3 In the final ten-minute session, the track conditions were good enough for intermediates. Fernando Alonso set pole position, with a time of 1:51.746, 's first since the 2010 Singapore Grand Prix, 32 races ago. Second was Mark Webber, just 0.047 seconds behind. This meant that the two championship leaders occupied the first two places on the grid. Third was Michael Schumacher, the German bringing his home 0.274 seconds behind Alonso. Schumacher was followed by fellow German, Sebastian Vettel, who was 0.453 seconds behind Alonso. Alonso's team mate, Felipe Massa, was well over a second down in fith, while Kimi Räikkönen was over one and half seconds down on Alonso. Pastor Maldonado was 0.004 seconds quicker than Lewis Hamilton. They qualified seventh and eighth. Ninth was Nico Hülkenberg, who was over 2.5 seconds down on Alonso. Romain Grosjean did not compete in the session after going off in Q2. Post-Qualifying Fernando Alonso's pole was both his and 's first for nearly two years, and it put him in a perfect position to extend his championship lead. Charles Pic was allowed to race by the stewards, who took the extreme conditions into account. Nico Hülkenberg changed his gearbox, resulting in a five-place grid penalty. Pic also had a five-place grid penalty for changing his gearbox. The penalties received in the previous race by Jean-Éric Vergne (ten places) and Kamui Kobayashi (five places) were also implemented. After these changes, Hülkenberg fell to 14th, Kobayashi fell to 17th, Vergne fell to 23rd and Pic stayed 24th and last. Everyone from Romain Grosjean to Narain Karthikeyan was affected by the grid penalties, moving up either one or two positions. Qualifying Results Grid Notes: * * Nico Hülkenberg dropped 5 places due to a gearbox change. * † Kamui Kobayashi dropped 5 places due to causing a collision in the last race. * ‡ Jean-Éric Vergne will dropped 10 places due to causing a collision in the last race. * § Charles Pic dropped 5 places due to a gearbox change. * Pic did not set a time within 107% of the fastest Q1 time, but was allowed to race. * ** Vitaly Petrov did not start (engine). Race Report Before the cars took to the grid, the engine in Vitaly Petrov's car suffered an oil leak, and he was unable to take part in the race. At the start, Fernando Alonso held off Mark Webber, cutting across the track. Felipe Massa overtake Sebastian Vettel for fourth, and started pressuringMichael Schumacher. Pastor Maldonado also gained a place, overtaking Kimi Räikkönen. Later on during the lap, Romain Grosjean clipped the rear rear tyre of Paul di Resta, and the driver went off the track with the resulting puncture. Di Resta pits, but the floor of his car was terminally damaged and he retired from the race. On lap three, Grosjean also pitted, putting on the prime tyre and fell to last. By lap nine, Alonso had built up a lead of about two seconds over Webber, who had a similar gap to Schumacher, who was holding up a train of cars, with Massa leading the charge. Vettel pitted on lap ten, rejoining in fifteenth place behind Daniel Ricciardo. The next lap, Massa passed Schumacher for third, and both Maldonado and Sergio Pérez pitted. Pérez attempted to pass the driver after the DRS zone, but the Venezuelan suffered a bit of oversteer and crashed in the . The Mexican was forced to retire, but Maldonado continued, but effectively, his race was over and any chance of pointscoring had disappeared. Due to the positioning of the accident, DRS was disabled for two laps. Schumacher pitted after being overtaken, taking on the hard tyre. Massa and Räikkönen pitted a lap later. On lap 14, Webber pitted, and on lap 15, Alonso pitted from the lead. This left Lewis Hamilton in front. On lap 19, Alonso had caught up with Hamilton, but got past despite strong defense from the British driver. Alonso had completed his past after the DRS detection point, but before the DRS zone, and he used the DRS down Wellington Straight. But to everyone's surprise, Hamilton managed to slipstream the and take the place back at the end of the straight; unfortuanately though, he went wide, and Alonso took the place back. Hamilton pitted a few laps later on lap 21. With all the pitstops completed, Alonso was first, ahead of Webber. Vettel had performed the undercut on both Massa and Schumacher. Sixth was Räikkönen, ahead of Hamilton. Eighth was Grosjean, who was attempting to complete two long stints and had only pitted once, as noted earlier. Ninth was Kamui Kobayashi, with Nico Hülkenberg rounding out the points. Eleventh was Bruno Senna, twelfth was Jenson Button. Nico Rosberg, in thirteenth, was the last of main pack. Ricciardo and Jean-Éric Vergne in the s were 14th and 15th. On lap 24, Schumacher lost two places as Räikkönen went past him with the aid of DRS, before Hamilton found his way past a few corners later. The German fell to seventh after these two passes. Räikkönen became the fastest driver on track. Back at the front, Alonso was pulling out a comfortable lead of about six seconds ahead of Webber. Grosjean finally pitted on lap 26. To cover, on lap 29, Hamilton pitted, a stint of just eight laps. He fell behind Rosberg, but overtook the German into Copse. The next lap, Hamilton passed team-mate Button for 10th. Grosjean also finds his way past the out-of-form Button, who pitted at the end of the lap. Grosjean immediately starts attacking Hamilton, and he gets past on lap 35. Vettel pitted on lap 31, starting a string of pit stops by the front runners. Webber was the next, on lap 33, finishing the race on the harder tyre. Both Räikkönen and Schumacher pitted on lap 34, followed by Massa on lap 35. Massa's teammate, Alonso, pitted for the option tyre on lap 37, meaning he had to survive 15 laps on the softer compound, which was unlikely to last the distance. Webber, on the more durable tyre, started closing in on the leader. When Kobayashi pitted on lap 37, he entered his pit box with too much speed, going slightly wide, and clattering into his mechanics on the right-hand side, before knocking the front jack man off his feet. Thankfully, no-one was seriously injured. After the final round of pitstops, the running order of the top 10 was Alonso, Webber, Vettel, Massa, Räikkönen, Grosjean, Hamilton, Schumacher, Hülkenberg and Senna. Button was 11th, followed by Kobayashi, Vergne, Ricciardo and Rosberg. Maldonado was nearly a lap down in 16th. Webber was closing down on leader Alonso at over half a second a lap. It was becoming a question of when, and not if, Webber would get past the Spaniard. On lap 47, Webber got the gap down to just half a second. On this lap, Schumacher, who was also going very quickly, managed to overtake Hamilton with the aid of DRS. Then, on lap 48, Webber got past Alonso, for the lead, with a DRS overtake. Alonso was trying to make his tyres last too long, and unfortunately paid the price. With three, Senna attempted to overtake Hülkenberg for ninth. The Brazilian got past at Brooklands, before Hülkenberg ran wide at Copse, losing two positions to Button and Kobayashi, and falling to twelfth. Webber went on to win the race, finishing 2.5 seconds ahead of Alonso. Vettel claimed the final podium place. Fourth was Massa, his best finish since his third place at the 2010 Singapore Grand Prix. Fifth was Räikkönen, less than a second behind Massa. Grosjean finished a strong recovery by coming in sixth. Schumacher was seventh and Hamilton was eighth, followed by Senna and Button, who took the final point. Kobayashi came 11th, ahead of the unlucky Hülkenberg. Thirteenth was Ricciardo, who overtook Vergne with a few laps to go. Rosberg was fifteenth. Maldonado, after his collision, came in a lap down in sixteenth. Heikki Kovalainen was the first driver of the new teams, in seventeenth, ahead of Timo Glock and Charles Pic. Pedro de la Rosa, who managed to complete a one-stop strategy, was twentieth; followed by his teammate, Narain Karthikeyan. Post-Race Mark Webber's win brought him seven points closer to Fernando Alonso, whose lead was now thirteen points. Sebastian Vettel overtook Lewis Hamilton in the championship battle; Vettel was now third. In the Constructors' Championship, held their lead, but second was now , after a 2nd place and a 4th place. were third, and were behind them by two points. Pastor Maldonado was given a fine of €10,000 (euros) for his collision with Sergio Pérez. Kamui Kobayashi was given a fine of €25,000 for his pitstop mishap, which could have serious injured four members of the pit crew. Results Fastest Laps Laps in the Lead By Lap Totals Milestones * 's 30th victory. Standings after race Notes es:Gran_Premio_del_Reino_Unido_de_2012 Category:2012 Grands Prix Category:British Grand Prix